Anfield Win Liverpool StreetChance Tournament

On the 8th April, a local StreetChance tournament was held at Anfield Sports and Community Centre.

These tournaments are an excellent way to bring the three StreetChance projects run in Liverpool together. The projects are run in Anfield, Dingle and Speke.

The children were split into four teams: Anfield Aces, Dingle Dynamos, Speke Strikers and the All Stars (a mixture of the three projects). These teams would play each other once, in a group, and then play semi-finals and then a final. The losers of the semi-finals would play in a third / fourth place playoff.

The games which the teams played are known as ‘Street20’ games. These games consist of each team facing twenty balls (four deliveries off each bowler) and scoring runs by:

1 run – hitting the side walls or running between the wickets

4 runs – hitting the back wall with the ball bouncing at least once

6 runs – hitting the back wall without bouncing

A batsman can be caught off the ceiling as well as the side and back walls.

The tournament was played in a competitive but fair spirit throughout the day. In the group stages, Dingle and Anfield won two out of three games, whereas Speke and the All Stars won one out of three. The first semi-final was between Dingle Dynamos and the All Stars, with Dingle just taking it. The other semi-final finished with the Anfield Aces winning with a six. This meant that the third / fourth place playoff was between the All Stars and Speke Strikers, which Speke came out on top, again the game finishing off with a six.

Then came the much anticipated final between the Dingle Dynamos and the Anfield Aces. Anfield won the toss and decided to field first and restricted Dingle to 30 runs. Dingle produced a valiant effort with the ball but the Anfield Aces were the local champions, winning the contest in the last over. Hopefully they aren’t the only champions from Anfield come the end of May!

Final Standings:

1st – Anfield Aces

2nd – Dingle Dynamos

3rd – Speke Strikers

4th – All Stars

During the tournament, the Dingle team showed excellent team ethic, with them celebrating with one another when they won and supporting each other when they lost. This was one of the main reasons as to why they finished second in the competition, an outstanding achievement for a team that was, on average, the youngest there. Their efforts have been rewarded with them all going to a StreetChance tournament on the 16th April in Dewsbury.

All in all, it was a great day for all the children involved in StreetChance as they all thoroughly enjoyed it and got to know each other a lot more throughout the day. Hopefully there will be many more tournaments like this in the future.

Sean Patten (StreetChance Coach - Liverpool)

StreetChance is a programme to engage young people from various backgrounds in areas affected by youth crime and anti-social behaviour through cricket. For further details on StreetChance visit: www.streetchance.org.